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Food Safety

A report commissioned by the British prime minister is pushing for global action to reduce the use of antibiotics in agriculture, including setting a global target to reduce antibiotic use in food production to an agreed-upon level, rapidly developing minimum standards to reduce antimicrobial manufacturing waste and improving surveillance to monitor use.

Weeks before lawmakers increased funding for government regulators’ activities to fight antibiotic resistance, a group of research and policy organizations, producers and purchasers urged congressional leadership for agriculture and FDA appropriations to include funding in the 2016 spending bill to improve monitoring of antimicrobial drug use in food-producing animals, evaluate new antibiotics and streamline antibiotic development.

A provision of the House spending package released Wednesday (Dec. 16) bars FDA from implementing its controversial menu labeling rule until one year after the agency finalizes guidance, unless that guidance comes before the current implementation date.

The omnibus spending agreement unveiled by House leaders early Wednesday (Dec. 16) includes a substantial funding bump for FDA’s implementation of the food safety law, with lawmakers urging FDA to use the extra resources to help state governments and private stakeholders in their efforts to implement the food law's new requirements.

The Senate health committee hopes to hold an executive session in early January to vote on Robert Califf's nomination to head FDA, a congressional aide tells Inside Health Policy. Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said in September that Califf has impressive credentials and the committee would move promptly to consider his nomination, but two senators recently said they would attempt to block the nomination over HHS policy issues.

Senate agriculture committee Chair Pat Roberts (R-KS) is championing draft language on labeling of foods with genetically-modified organisms to be included in the omnibus package lawmakers are trying to pass by Dec. 11, according to a spokesperson from food manufacturing lobbyist, Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) will attempt to block the pending nomination of Robert Califf as commissioner of FDA over the agency's recent approval of genetically engineered fish, according to a statement released on Nov. 23.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) will attempt to block the pending nomination of Robert Califf as commissioner of FDA over the agency's recent approval of genetically engineered fish, according to a statement released on Nov. 23.

Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced legislation Monday (Nov. 23) calling for more consistent food labels and clearer definitions of “healthy” and “natural,” coming soon after FDA asked stakeholders if it should define the term “natural” for use on food product labels.

FDA lays out in newly released guidance documents why it will not mandate unique labeling for genetically engineered foods, and why it prefers manufacturers not use the terms genetically modified and genetically modified organism in any voluntary labeling.

FDA plans to collect 1,600 samples of cucumbers and hot peppers starting in November due to outbreaks related to each commodity and conduct whole genomic sequence testing on any samples that test positive for Salmonella, E. coli, and other contaminants.

FDA's final produce rule released on Friday (November 13) brings a seismic shift in the way food safety is regulated, as it marks both the first time the produce sector has fallen under the agency's oversight and the first set of enforceable safety standards, but one that industry should not have difficulty in complying with as the rule embraces best practices largely already followed by growers, sources say.

FDA unveiled its final rule on accreditation of third-party certification bodies to conduct food safety audits and to issue certifications for foreign food suppliers with relatively few changes to the proposed rule issued in July 2013.

FDA on Friday (Nov. 13) unveiled the foreign supplier verification program rule required by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) with provisions the agency says provide flexibility and recognize the “reality of modern distribution chains,” such as not requiring an importer to conduct supplier verification when the hazard will be controlled by a subsequent entity in the distribution chain.